Smalley-Curl Institute

SCI

2018 SCI Transdisciplinary Symposium

The Smalley-Curl Institute held its 3rd Annual Transdisciplinary Symposium on Friday, February 9th, 2018.

Symposium winning presenters received a $500 Travel Award, sponsored by the following departments and the Smalley-Curl Institute: Bioengineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Chemistry, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and NanoEngineering, and Physics and Astronomy.

Rice Assistant Professor Eilaf Egap holds a vial of quantum dots her lab is using to catalyze the creation of functional polymers. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

Rice University scientists simplify process to make polymers with light-triggered nanoparticles

Rice University scientists plan to employ the power of the sun to build functional synthetic polymers using photosensitive quantum dots — microscopic semiconducting particles — as a catalyst. The luminescent dots are only a few nanometers wide, but are highly tunable for their unique optical and electronic properties. They are beginning to show up in modern displays, but lend themselves to industrial chemistry as well. The Rice lab of materials scientist Eilaf Egap focused on the latter with its demonstration of a stable and economical method to make polymers through photo-controlled atom-transfer radical polymerization. The method could replace molecular catalysts or expensive transition metals currently used to make things like methacrylates (common in plastics), styrene and block copolymers.

The first clinical study of a low-cost, hand-held jaundice detector invented by Rice University students couldn’t have come at a better time for NEST360°, an international team of scientists, doctors and global health experts preparing for a Dec. 11 competition for $100 million from the MacArthur Foundation. The money would allow the team to carry out its visionary plan to halve the number of newborn deaths in African hospitals within 10 years.

Rice postdoctoral research fellow Alessandro Alabastri, alumnus Andrew Treleaven ’13 and graduate student Pratiksha Dongare attended the inaugural University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Showcase in Washington, D.C., to demonstrate SNOWater, a solar water desalination project they pioneered at Rice’s Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment Research Center. SNOWater converts high-salinity and polluted water to freshwater and allows the use of solar energy for off-the-grid water purification. The Nov. 14 showcase highlighted the role of federally funded university research in fueling entrepreneurship, innovation and competitiveness across the country. The Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and the Association of American Universities in partnership with the National Academy of Inventors and VentureWell hosted the event.

Rice University nanoscientist honored for pioneering research in plasmonics

The prize, which includes a $10,000 award, is given annually to recognize an outstanding contribution to physics. Halas is being honored for her “pioneering research at the intersection of optics and nanoscience, and groundbreaking applications of those findings in the field of plasmonics, and for her exceptional impact communicating the excitement of scientific discoveries and their vital role in improving people’s lives.”

Applied Physics Students in the News

Rice University graduate student Pratiksha Dongare's solar desalination project, "SNOWater" has been selected to participate in the inaugural University Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E) Showcase in Washington, D.C. The I&E Showcase will take place during the Association of American Universities (AAU) and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) 2017 Annual Meeting on November 12-14. Congratulations, Pratiksha!

Rice University’s latest nanophotonics research could expand the color palette for companies in the fast-growing market for glass windows that change color at the flick of an electric switch. In a new paper in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano, researchers from the laboratory of Rice plasmonics pioneer Naomi Halas report using a readily available, inexpensive hydrocarbon molecule called perylene to create glass that can turn two different colors at low voltages. -Read More: Rice News Article

Pelham Keahey wins six-year NCI grant for cancer diagnosis

Rice University graduate student Pelham Keahey is one of less than 40 in the entire country of the inaugural winners of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) prestigious predoctoral-to-postdoctoral fellow transition award, which includes funding for two years of graduate school and four years of postdoctoral training. Keahey, who is pursuing a doctorate through Rice’s Applied Physics Graduate Program (and past president of the Applied Physics Graduate Student Association) and carrying out his research in the lab of bioengineer Rebecca Richards-Kortum, said the funds will support his development on the use of low-cost, point-of-care optical imaging and molecular probes to improve the detection and treatment of cancer.

Welcome to the Smalley-Curl Institute (SCI)

The Smalley-Curl Institute (SCI) was created in 2015 from the merger of two of Rice multidisciplinary research institutes, the Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology and the Rice Quantum Institute. SCI is the home of the Applied Physics Graduate Program and of several endowed postdoctoral research fellowships. It participates in establishing strong industrial collaborations, and takes part in novel educational and outreach programs, such as the Professional Science Master’s Program in Nanoscale Science. The Institute assists its members in forging new, cross-cutting and interdisciplinary research areas, and in seeking new means of supporting their work. Research in SCI encompasses advanced materials, quantum magnetism, plasmonics and photonics, biophysics and bioengineering, ultracold atom physics, condensed matter and chemical physics, and all aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology.